Kolkata: There is something quietly defiant about Mohammed Shami still turning up. At 36, with 99 first-class matches behind him and a 100th waiting in the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone starting in Chennai on Sunday, Shami finds himself at an awkward intersection of achievement and uncertainty.
The milestone is significant. The circumstances are less so. India’s selectors have, through their decisions, suggested that the fast bowler is no longer part of their immediate plans.
Shami, however, continues to behave as if the argument remains open. “I think he is just one of the best. He has been a legend of this game. He has been doing so well since he started playing for Bengal. He has been picking wickets, giving all his energy and he has done so well for the Indian cricket team also,” his East Zone captain Ishan Kishan told reporters on Saturday.
Kishan sees little reason to regard Shami’s age as a decisive argument. “It’s hard to say when it comes to age, I feel age is just a number. If he is working hard it doesn’t matter. I see that hunger in Shami bhai because who better than me to judge about hunger right now.”
The hunger Kishan suggests is not abstract. He has seen it at close quarters. “He has been doing so well, especially having him in our team it gives us a bit of more confidence.”
{{/usCountry}}The hunger Kishan suggests is not abstract. He has seen it at close quarters. “He has been doing so well, especially having him in our team it gives us a bit of more confidence.”
{{/usCountry}}There was a revealing detail in Kishan’s description of Shami’s contribution this season. The seasoned fast bowler has not been content to just fulfil his allocation of overs.
“Looking at his efforts as a captain I felt very nice, because Shami bhai came in asking me for those extra overs to get the wickets. This is something which always gives confidence to skippers, when you have bowlers who are willing to get you wickets. So, it’s always good to have him in the team.”
And then, with the affection that often accompanies domestic cricket, Kishan added: “He also finished with two boundaries, so he is an allrounder I feel nowadays.”
It is the image of Shami asking for more overs that lingers. There is no suggestion here of a bowler winding down gently towards the end of his career. Instead, here is a veteran fast bowler actively looking for another spell, another wicket, another opportunity to make his case.
“Looking at Shami bhai this season, I feel he has been very different, how I have seen him in past, but his approach towards the game, his intensity, his energy has been very different,” Kishan said.
That difference matters because Shami’s domestic career now carries a question that once belonged almost exclusively to selectors: can he still force his way back?
At the 2023 World Cup, the answer appeared obvious. After initially being left out of India’s playing XI, Shami became one of the tournament’s defining players, taking 23 wickets in seven matches, averaging 10.70. Then an ankle injury and the surgery that followed kept him out for almost a year.
He returned for the 2025 Champions Trophy, but since then the road back into India’s plans has become considerably steeper. Domestic cricket has offered Shami matches and wickets, but not the automatic route into the national side that it once represented.
Kishan believes the motivation is still there. “He has that hunger and that motivation right now like he wants to do that comeback. He wants to be part of the Indian squad again and you can see it in him.”
That is perhaps the most telling description of Shami at this stage of his career. He is not merely playing because there is another match to play. Shami appears to be playing because he still wants to prove a point.